Kong Kong's Quilts

Daddy loved batik shirts. So over the years, I had bought him quite a few, especially for Chinese New Year.

It's almost 2 years since he passed away. As always, I try to find ways to keep his (and mummy's) memory alive. And then I had the idea that we should make his old shirts into a quilt. This idea came about from his love of children. When he had dreams, it would sometimes be about children and blankets.

He loved his grandchildren so it was a no-brainer that the quilts should be made for them, hopefully for them to use when they have their own children. To me, that would be the perfect way for the future generations to have something of his, and to feel his warmth which he had given to his grandchildren.

The idea of a small quilt also came about because when my boys were babies, I had bought a couple of small quilts which I used to lay on the floor so they could play on them. As a first-time mum, I was very particular about hygiene and carried the quilt when we went out visiting. They came in very handy when travelling on planes too. And I still have the blue one today.

Whilst I had wanted to add a personal touch and sew the quilts for Daddy myself, unfortunately, I doubted my sewing skills. I had not sewn for years. The last time I used a sewing machine was probably in school! I searched for and watched online videos on how to make quilts. I looked at patterns and thought about the tools I needed. In my mind, his shirts would be cut into small hexagonal pieces and stitched together, like our old neighbour at Bukit Merah did. But that would have taken me years....

Then my siblings and I went to Guangzhou last November (read my previous post). We thought it would be a good idea to try to get the quilts made there. So we took his batik shirts with us during the trip. We found a shop that could sew the quilts but they could not be made in time for us to bring them back. A good friend offered to bring them back when she visited Guangzhou the next time around.

I had been waiting anxiously for months ... and the quilts finally arrived!

I put them on my boys' beds and they look simply beautiful...

May we have our own grandchildren too and bestow on them the same warmth that their parents received from their grandfather.

Of Sunsets And Flowers

I had never realised that the sun could shift so much and that the effect would be so dramatic.

When we moved into our new place about 8 months ago, we did not get any sun in the balcony, nor in the boys' rooms. However, over a period of 8 months, the sun has shifted and our boys' room and the balcony are now very hot - we get both the morning and afternoon sun.

In the beginning, I used to get to see beautiful sunsets from the back of the apartment where my back yard was. I was so in awe of the breathtaking sunsets in the evening which I could see from my back yard.

The sun has now shifted so much that the sunset is now seen from my balcony in front of my apartment instead.

Isn't that amazing? The good thing is that we can now enjoy the sunset while having our dinner in our balcony.

I was never one with green fingers. And this proved all too true with a flowering plant we bought when we moved to our new place. All was fine in the beginning and the plant kept blooming and we had a rather long period when there were bright pink flowers.

However, a few months later, the leaves started dropping, flowers stopped blooming and the plant was practically bald. I noticed a lot of white powdery substance all around the leaves, the branches and even the flower pot. I consulted the nursery where I bought the plant and was told that it was fungus - very difficult to get rid of.

It was a rather expensive plant and I did not want to let it just wither away. So every morning, I would use a toothbrush and brush away the white fungus. I had to do this every morning for quite a while as the fungus was very stubborn and would keep coming back.

The other thing was that I had to move the plant so that it got direct sunlight.

With Chinese New Year round the corner, the plant was still rather bald. There was no red colour for good luck so I tied tiny red ribbons.

I am happy to report that now my plant is flowering again!

So perhaps I have green fingers after all.  Or was it the red ribbons I had tied that brought good luck?